I left home at around 4.30 pm, Friday the 6th, to catch the Chamundi Express departing for Mysore at 6.15 pm. I took the metro to KSR Bengaluru, for which you have to take the green line from JP Nagar to Kempegowda and then the Purple line to the City Railway Station. The advantage is that there is a walkway from the metro station directly to the overbridge that will take you straight to your Indian Railways platform.
Chamundi Express is the same as Rajya-Rani Express, so there was some confusion – better to locate the train by train number – 16216 in this case.
The train reached Mysore at 8.45 pm – about 20 minutes ahead of schedule. My brother Balaji was there to pick me up – we took a pre-paid auto to his apartment in JC layout where we halted for the night before the journey the next day.
On Saturday, we took an express bus to HD Kote and got off at a place with an interesting name called Hand Post. The ticket was Rs. 55 per head. Then we took a shared van (similar to a Traveler), for Rs. 600 to Jungle Lodges’ Kabini River Lodge which is about 30 km from Hand Post.
We had time to explore the place since check-in was at 1 pm. The property is excellent with lots of trees and flowers and borders the Kabini backwaters.
We had the backpackers’ package that was 8K per night including lunch, dinner and breakfast, a boat safari and a safari by canter. The accommodation was pretty nice – a dormitory that sleeps around 10. The beds were very comfortable and the lights and flooring were good.
There was only a family of 3 and 2 backpackers from Kerala other than the two of us. The bathrooms were located outside, a short distance away and were neat and clean.
We opted for the boat safari for Saturday afternoon and Canter safari for Sunday morning. Breakfast, lunch and dinner were at the Gol Ghar that is found in most Jungle Lodges properties. Needless to say, the food was excellent with plenty of variety, as well as the desserts, including some never-before-tried and exotic ones like “Rum Balls”.
The boat safari turned out to be the ideal way of spotting wildlife – in-spite of being on the water. We were able to spot Cormorants, Spoonbills, Black-headed Ibises, Painted Storks, Pied Kingfishers (2 of them).
We saw a lot of elephants – small groups of 3 with a baby, large herds and even a lone tusker. Then came the Chital (Spotted Deer), Sambhar, Dhole (Wild Dogs) and Bison. There was even an encounter between the Wild Dogs and Bison, with the Bison eventually chasing them away. However, we could not spot a tiger. The boat safari was a mammoth 3 hours long with plenty of wildlife at regular intervals including crocodiles.
After getting some sleep, we woke up at 5.30 the next morning and got ready for the canter safari. The bus was large and comfortable. We spotted peacocks (including one that was dancing), a pair of mongooses and Chital, but no tiger.
After breakfast and checkout, we took a cab (Rs. 800) to Hand Post and a bus back to Mysore. After a nap, we took Tuticorin Express to Bangalore leaving Mysore at 6.20 pm that reached Bangalore at 9 pm. It was then the metro back to JP Nagar.
An excellent, though somewhat expensive trip and mind you, camera charges are additional and can be up to Rs. 1000 (per trip) for a 200-500 mm lens.
However, everything is very well organized and the food was excellent. You may wish to upgrade to the Maharaja or Viceroy packages, that are more expensive, but give you accommodation with attached bathrooms, more privacy and a safari by Gypsy rather than Canter. In-spite of these packages being more expensive, availability is very limited year-round, so you need to book in advance.
Feel free to ping me with questions about the resort and/or the safaris and wildlife.
Over and out.
Ganesh Gopalan's Blog 